October 16, 2010

My Bartender’s Secret

When I was on The Nate Berkus show earlier this week, I mentioned cleaning my copper with “my bartender’s secret” and I have gotten a number of questions about it. It’s not really a secret, it’s a friend -- Bar Keeper’s Friend, a great way to clean copper pots, pans and more. I like this because it seems to keep copper cleaner for longer than other products. Not only does BKF clean the tarnish off the copper, it also gets sudsy and makes a sheeting action, so that the copper doesn’t spot as easily.Before I moved to Wales, I had more than 100 pieces of kitchen copper, and I used this on all of them. You can find this in some grocery stores in the cleaning section (look at the bottom shelves) or in old-style hardware stores.

As we move into fall, there’s nothing prettier on the table than some copper pieces.

Reggie is a great fan of BKF. Like Miss Wendy, Reggie uses it to keep his stainless steel kitchen sink shining clean. It is also a wonder at taking baked on food stains off of his stainless steel stove top. His only complaint is that BKF is difficult to find in the supermarkets he frequents. He does not recommend the liquid version in a squeeze bottle, only the dry version in the canister.

About Me

Pigtown Design is the musings of Meg Fairfax Fielding, a Baltimore-based writer, photographer and fund-raiser, who explores design, architecture, culture, and current events in Baltimore and around the world.